In Romans: chapter 7, Paul sets forth the illustration
of our flesh (natural person not redeemed)life vs.
the spiritual life. The verses 14-20 refers to the
person who desires to do good, but cannot because the
flesh and the spirit war against one another.
The Law of sin and death which has taken root in mankind
could not be removed by the Mosaic Law. That is, our
unredeemed self. Otherwise, our Savior would not
have come into the world in order to set us free from
the Law of Sin and Death.
—-
The verses Romans: 7-14-20 are usually quoted by
Christians whereby they excuse themselves from growing in
the spiritual life. “I desire to do good but I cannot …
Paul plainly says that the Christian has been liberated
from the Law of Sin and Death that holds the world in thrall.
“Oh …who will rescue me from this body of death ( Law of sin
and death that wars in my members) Romans: 7-23-24.

…Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord…Romans 7-25.
Therefore brethren through Christ Jesus, the Law of the
Spirit of life sets me free from the Law of sin and death.
Romans:8 2-4. In order that the righteous requirements
of the Law (Mosaic Law) might be fully met in us, who do not
live according to the sin nature but according to the Spirit.
Romans:8-9 We are controlled not by the sin nature, but by
the Spirit,if the Spirit of God lives in you.

*Notice. Not only are we freed from the Law of sin, but from
the Law of death. Death has no terrors for us for we are set
free from its Law.
John:14 1-4 …The place you know and the way you know…
We Christians have an obligation to live a holy life in the
Spiritual Law of Christ. Our great High Priest, who ever lives
to make intercession for us, sits at the right Hand of God.

*When our Spirit is at last set free from the body we transfer
to our home to be with our Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing
to fear.
It is not as in the pre-Christian and post-Christian world
where the disbelieving ones know not to where they go. The beliefs
are many; the being dissolves at death, denial of a place of
dread, many others believe in mythic places of dreams, as did the
Greeks, and numerous peoples of the world still.

But we know where we are going and the Spirit testifies to our
heart its Truth.

The word soul and spirit are hardly mentioned today. I have rarely heard
the word spirit spoken even during church service. The words have fallen
by the wayside, and the word body has been elevated to worship status.
This is the day of the body, its wants and its desires are sacrosanct.
The pursuit of happiness/pleasure focused entirely on bodily desires has
assumed a supreme importance. The body combined with the word love is revered,
and love has become a pallid thing with no life.

But we are not just a body, we are soul and spirit also. We are first and
foremost a spirit wrapped within a body. The soul is that which makes up
the person that we are, and is intertwined with our spirit. The flesh is
one thing and the spirit is another. Jesus said…God is spirit and His
worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:2.

After the body dies, what then? If one believes and acts upon the premise
that rights to the body belong to the individual, then when death dissolves
the body where is the spirit? …For if you live according to the flesh,
you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,
you will live. Romans 8:13

The faulty logic that the body is all we have,and it is grounded in this
world, is evident to all who believe that our spirit endures after we
leave this planet.

G.C. Morgan April 10, 2016

…The word was with God and the Word was God…
He tabernacled among us…John 1:…14
These words remind us that we are strangers on
earth as our Lord was when He walked among us.
We are Pilgrims traveling to another country.

His Word has transformed,and continually transforms,
us into beings like unto Him. Cor. 3:18.If not, we
are either disobedient followers,or we don’t belong to Him.
This world, under judgment of death, has faded from view and
no longer has any hold on the maturing children of the
Kingdom. Rom. 6:23

I have watched the buds of Spring unfold their petals
into a surprising beauty, a beauty that leaves one breathless.
The cluster of flowers on fragile limbs that move in a gentle wind
speaks to me of the Designer Who wants to unfold the beauty of our
spiritual being.

We are buds in Christ, and as we abide in the “Word” His life flows
through us, and we, like the buds of a tree, progress towards maturity.
It may be a million years, as we count time, to reach our full potential,
but still our advance with Him is a reflection of what will be. We can
trust Him with the unfolding beauty that is beyond our present comprehension.

I was reading A W Tozer (1897-1963) last night and stopped abruptly when I read these words.

I am among those who believe that our Western civilization is on it way to perishing. It has many commendable qualities, most of which it has borrowed from the Christian ethic, but it lacks the element of moral wisdom that would give it permanence. Future historians will record that we of the twentieth century had intelligence enough to create a great civilization but not the moral wisdom to preserve it.

We are now in another century. And these words are as relevant today as when A W Tozer spoke them in the 1900’s. They are still pertinent, even more so, as the forces he spoke of has reached their culmination in a culture that seeks only self-fulfillment.Today, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, guaranteed by the Constitution, has elevated the pursuit of happiness above any other right.

In addition, our nation is rent by divisive groups and is in danger of plunging into total anarchy. And when our country has been rent to an unbearable state of lawlessness, who is there among us to mend the rents?

I see no one but God Who can heal and make us whole again. But how can He, when on every hand, His followers are mocked and the very idea of God is belittled. In the hour of trouble, anxious, insecure, people seek Him, but quickly forget when normality returns to the scene.

If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Chronicles 2:7-14

In these verses God is speaking to (Israel) but the verses relate to us today. We Christians are to focus on prayer for our nation. We then must work in the civic arena to restore the moral basis that once contributed to the greatness of our country. It is urgent that we do so.

Unless our nation turns away from its immoral culture, and prays for the wisdom to govern justly and righteously, we will not be a democracy within twenty five years.

A glorious Throne on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Jer. 17:12

In these dreadful days of world-wide storm and strife
when it seems peace has taken leave of the earth,
and the ruins are inhabited by the base,
let us, like Jeremiah who uttered these words
amid a war-torn country, choose sanctuary at
the Throne that forever remains.

Once to every man and nation,
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever,
’Twixt that darkness and that light.

Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And ’tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied.

By the light of burning martyrs,
Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track,
Toiling up new Calv’ries ever
With the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own.
—James R. Lowell 1845

God, who is the great giver of life, delights in the activity of love for the blessings of the recipients. God looks to the end product of our suffering and is pleased as He shapes us into the being we will ultimately become as we walk in obedience with Him.
We may not like the trial of suffering we are undergoing, but if we yield it up to God and receive it as coming from His Hand, we will begin to understand how God uses the circumstances of our life to bring about good for us.
God delights in the process of our spiritual growth. He gave Paul a ‘thorn in the flesh’ which Paul came to realize was the means that God used to further his spiritual growth. “I glory in my weakness…2 Cor. 12:8-10

A pearl is found beneath the flowing tide,
And there is held, a worse than worthless thing,
Spoiling the shell-built home where it doth cling—
Marring the life near which it must abide.
The everlasting portals are of these,
To teach us that perchance some heavy load—
Some cross ’gainst which so sorely we have striven,
That seems to mar our lives and spoil our ease—
May bring us nearer to the saints’ abode,
And prove at last the very “Gate of Heaven.”
—Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

What does the word materialism mean? It s a belief that only the material world exists. Excessive concern with material values rather than spiritual or intellectual values.

The focus is upon this world, indulging the senses; the desires and the longings pertaining to the self or to others.

If measured from 1-10 the most lofty desire is to work toward perfecting the world, the lowest is the indulging the desires of the self in ways destructive to the inner self.

Carnality is an old word, not much used in these days, but it is a defining word that describes the social practices of today.

A denial of the spiritual is inherent in the word materialism. A longing to make the world a better place is not wrong. The center is missing, however.

Many Christians, and even Churches, of today have joined the world to follow this lofty idea. Forgotten is the fact that Christian’s have an eternal destiny in another world, another Kingdom. Once the focus is off Christ and centered on the world it becomes easier to lose the mission that our Lord gave to His apostles, and thereby to us.

Nowhere did our Lord give a commandant to go into the world and perfect it.

The mission is to call people out of the world to His Kingdom by telling others about His redeeming work. We are no longer a part of this world, but an example to the world as we grow into the person God wants us to be; to put on the characteristic’s of Christ through the Holy Spirit working within us.